Soil pH in Wichita, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Wichita, TX

Typical topsoil in Wichita, TX is pH 7.31 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Wichita needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.31, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 34% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 340,783 surveyed acres in Wichita, TX, 63% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 36% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.4 to 8.3, a spread of 2.9 units across 76 soil components. 63% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 24.1% clay and 1.63% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 34% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Wichita against the rest of Texas

pH 7.31 is 0.12 below the Texas median of 7.43. 105 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Stephens (7.27), Palo Pinto (7.29), Refugio (7.29), Andrews (7.31), Tarrant (7.32), Hood (7.33), La Salle (7.33), Cooke (7.34).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Wichita sits 75% of the way up.